Osaka is Japan's third biggest city and according to my guide book has a GDP output similar to Canada. Osaka also has Japan's best aquarium and a Universal Studios among its attractions but otherwise there wasn't a huge amount to sightsee. I started my day here by going to Osaka castle, Osaka's main attraction in the city is Osaka castle, which is famous in Japan for having two elevators, one on the outside of the tower and one on the inside. The castle and towe...

My next stay in Japan was at Kyoto, the previous capital before the Edo period, Kyoto. This city is famous for all of its cultural heritage and temples but when I walked out of the enormous train station I was shocked at how built up and industrialised the area around the station was. With Kyoto tower and the infamous modern train station the area ressembled one of the more industrial areas of Tokyo and not how I had imagined it. When I began properly exploring...

Before Kyoto was ever capital, Nara was the first capital of Japan and the birthplace of Japanese culture, individual of the Korean and Chinese influence. I decided to take a day trip here from Kyoto to learn more about Japanese history. When I walked out of the station I was again surprised to see Nara was similiarly built up like Kyoto with towering buildings and no evidence of its past. Unlike Kyoto however all of Nara`s historical sights were all in one area,...

On my first day of touring Tokyo I decided to get off at the main JR station stop 'Tokyo' right in the centre of the city to walk around and see if there was anything of nots. Unfortuneatley Tokyo was quite different to all of the other cities I had explored in the all the things to see are incredibly spread out through the while city, so the area I went to was just a built up business district. After that I decided to go somewhere my guide book suggested, Shinj...

Even though I was sleep deprived and jet-lagged I was still really excited and awake when I landed in Tokyo because Japan was one of the places I was most looking forward to visiting. I said goodbye to Chris and Esther at Sydney and Christchurch airport ready to do the next few legs on my own for the first time. After I had gone through Customs at Narita airport, I collected my Japan Railways Pass that I had bought in England. This pass allows me on any JR (the ...